Resources

2-3 years: Beginning sentences- As your child combines words into sentences, model short sentences, such as a noun (+) verb format, during play (ex: “dog run”, or “The dog is running”). Continue to expand on what your child says, using simple adjectives. Let your child help you with some daily household activities and talk about what you're doing together. Notice and comment on what you and your child do, where you are for each activity, and the sequence of steps involved.

As your child continues to build their receptive and expressive language skills, you can help by organizing your child's toys into categories. Placing similar toys in clear containers on low shelves works well for this. Have a place to store all of their vehicles, toy food, animals, dolls and art materials separately. Show him how things that belong to groups are organized in your home and in the community. For example at the grocery store help your child notice that all the fruit goes together, and that he can find things he eats for breakfast all on another aisle.

Your child may now enjoy books that are organized around a favorite subject (vehicles, animals, etc.), and you as the parent can use books as a helpful tool to introduce the child to new situations, such as going to the doctor, or starting pre-school.

As you continue to read to your child, talk about how objects and certain actions and settings in stories go together (for example- they eat at the table, he brushes his teeth in the bathroom, they put all the fruit in the basket). Helping your child understand how items are related to each other will later assist him with knowing what to expect when he is listening to or beginning to read simple stories.